If you have an analog membership, the above list of songs is $440 worth of music.

That's funny.

Nah, you have to subtract the cost of holding my ticket seniority, a tshirt, a bootleg, and a physical vinyl record. I'd say I pay $5-10/year for that music. So do digital members.

I've had a lot of different experiences with the t-shirts, but I did check and you do get a code you can use for a yearly t-shirt discount. None of the shows here have used the seniority. Think I have gotten 4 of 5 of those vinyls. Used to get Deep fairly often, but not in the last 3-4 years.

Last edited by Anders on Sat January 13, 2018 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The ticket seniority thing is hilarious to me. How many years of membership dues do you have to fork over before the band even comes to your area? For some people I'm guessing it's easily five or six. And then still, you go into a lottery where you might not even get seats to all the shows you want? And then still, you don't actually save any money, you just get first access to pay full price like everyone else? So in order to get halfway decent seats to see the band, instead of just going online and paying a higher price point, you have to repeatedly "invest" in a fan club membership in the hopes that once every few years the band is going to come to your area and a lottery is going to turn in your favor? Is this reasonably accurate?

The ticket seniority thing is hilarious to me. How many years of membership dues do you have to fork over before the band even comes to your area? And then still, you go into a lottery where you might not even get seats to all the shows you want? And then still, you don't actually save any money, you just get first access to pay full price like everyone else? So in order to get halfway decent seats to see the band, instead of just going online and paying a higher price point, you have to repeatedly "invest" in a fan club membership in the hopes that once every few years the band is going to come to your area and a lottery is going to turn in your favor? Is this reasonably accurate?

It is, but even with all of that being true I have no problem maintaining for the lottery, since it is your best shot at getting good seats and avoiding the ticketmaster hassle. That's worth a lot to me (though if not for my number i may well have quit by now)

I THINK you're wrong about the shirt, but I'm not a member at that level so don't quote me.

I have no problem with the 10c pumping out merch for the band as long as people want them. I don't collect pearl jam stuff, but I understand the impulse and if I did I'd be thrilled to have the options. But I certainly wont' defend it as a great value.

I've considered dropping to digital a few times. I've never considered dropping my membership altogether. Pearl Jam's almost the only band I go see live. My seats have always been stellar, and I'm almost guaranteed GA seats in the markets I go to. That's easily worth $20 a year to me.

When I consider dropping down to digital I usually look at the value of the items I get.

- digital bootleg: $10- t-shirt: $20- vinyl single: $10

I get that for $20. Fine with me. I have a wishlist for membership, and I posted it earlier in this thread, but tossing in an extra $20 for $40 of stuff, most of it limited edition? Fine.

As for regular merch, I usually want 80% of what they put out, but it's often more pricey than I can go for. If Amazon is an option, that's usually what I do. If not, I wait and maybe change my mind later. $25-$30 is a lot for a t-shirt, but what band playing venues of over 100 people doesn't charge that?